Under The Bleeding Moon
yelled these words back from the barricade as loudly as he could. He jumped down from the giant wall and limped back to the several civilians waiting by the radio tower. He held his ribs as dark blood pumped from his side with every step. Several turians armed with assault rifles quickly ran up to the barricade and waited for the inevitable. "How long until reinforcements arrive," said Nihlus to Tyran Manik at the radio tower. "They didn't give an ETA but they said that the nearest fleet was en route," replied Tyran. Nihlus knew that it could take up to an hour for military reinforcements to arrive, time that he and the colonists didn't have. It all started early that morning when a fleet of cargo freighters thought to contain supplies for the colony on Ulkanas landed on the planet. Instead, these freighters held an army of ravenous intent on raiding the small colony for everything it had. Civilian farmers and law enforcement did what they could to stave off the invasion but they would have quickly been overwhelmed were it not for Nihlus, who happened to be on the planet over-looking construction on a new security array. For hours, Nihlus was forced to defend the colony practically himself. He managed to coordinate a resistance force to help fight off vorcha and escort noncombatents to transport vessels but for every fighter under his command, the vorcha had thirty more. "Alright, everyone bunker down and get ready to hold the line. It's going to be a tough ride," growled Nihlus. Tyran tossed a pack to Nihlus, which he immediately applied to his gushing wound. He was still light-headed from the large amount of blood that he lossed from his last encounter with a wave of vorcha but supplies were scarce and it was the time for rationing whatever he and his resistance had left. Nihlus sat with his back pressed against the cover of the barricade, the sound of his heart beat thundering to him. This sound was drowned out only by the sound of the vorcha who were now at the barricade. He could hear them snarling, plotting their next attack. Nihlus clinched his rifle in his claws; he knew that vorcha weren't exactly tactical geniuses but they were more than a threat to anyone, especially large numbers of them. Curious and suspicious of the vorcha and their behavior, Nihlus peaked over the barricade. He struggled to look over the wall as, at the same time, he was trying to keep himself out of sight. With one eye, he managed to spot several dozen vorcha waiting only 20 feet away from the barricade with small squads steadily flowing in to join the large collection of savages. Nihlus unhooked a grenade from his satchel and looked over to a few of the other turrians. They saw the grenade in his claws and as he nodded to them, they took out their own grenades. Almost simultaneously, they all activated their explosives and tossed them over the barricade. A brief moment of suspense was broken by a series of loud booms and hissing screams. After that, Nihlus immediately stood to his feet and began firing from the barricade into the crowd of vorcha. Smoke and fire blocked his view, but not enough to keep im from piercing the skulls of several dozen vorcha within a few seconds. The vorcha were still rattled by the grenades and were reduced to an unorganized heap of screaming creatures, firing madly in all directions. The other turians joined Nihlus in the shooting gallery and effectively began to rain down assault rifle rounds on the vorcha from atop the 15 foot high barricade. By this time, some of the vorcha began to pull themselves together and rallied the others together. It was then a battle as high-speed rounds began creating craters in the barricade. Category:Tomgulch Category:Fan Fiction